Mexico Becomes Latest Century-Bond Cautionary Tale

Maybe investors will think twice the next time some institution comes around offering a 100-year bond.

If the prospect of locking up your money for longer than you'll be alive wasn't already daunting enough, the recent performance of some these so-called century bonds should certainly give you pause. Take JC Penney's (JCP) century bonds, issued in 1997 and seen trading most recently at 71 cents on the dollar, per online trading platform MarketAxess. Seemed like a perfectly stable retailer a decade and a half ago. Now it's...